More charges filed against Darien home invasion suspects

John Nickerson

Published 10:22 pm, Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Alexis Jordan, a Hamden woman who was charged with breaking into a Darien home and assaulting a 68-year-old woman in January, was slapped with new charges Tuesday that accused her of stealing more than $20,000 worth of jewelry and other items from a Darien home five months earlier.
Photo: Contributed Photo

Alexis Jordan, a Hamden woman who was charged with breaking into a...

Michael Apuzzo, a Hamden man who was charged with breaking into a Darien home and assaulting a 68-year-old woman in January, was slapped with new charges Tuesday that accused him of stealing more than $20,000 worth of jewelry and other items from a Darien home five months earlier.
Photo: Contributed Photo

STAMFORD -- Two Hamden residents charged with breaking into a Darien home and assaulting a 68-year-old woman in January were slapped with new charges Tuesday that accused them of stealing more than $20,000 worth of jewelry and other items from a Darien home five months earlier.

Michael Apuzzo, 25, and Alexis Jordan, 22, were brought to state Superior Court in Stamford Tuesday morning, where Darien detectives served them with warrants charging them with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny.

According to the arrest warrants and information in their court files, Jordan allegedly made 28 visits to two pawnshops in New Haven and Wallingford, where she is believed to have sold dozens of stolen items from June 27 to Nov. 30.

Both Apuzzo, who is being held in lieu of bond exceeding $300,000, and Jordan, being held in lieu of more than $250,000, had their bonds increased by $20,000 each by Judge Bruce Hudock on Tuesday.

Attorney David Marantz, representing Apuzzo, and public defender Barry Butler, representing Jordan, entered not guilty pleas for the new Darien charges. No pleas have been made yet for the home-invasion charge or for a Norwalk burglary the two were later accused of commiting the day before the Darien home invasion.

Butler and Marantz declined comment on the new charges because they have not seen the latest arrest warrant.

On the afternoon of Jan. 30, Jordan allegedly walked into a Priscilla Lane home and unexpectedly confronted a woman who had just walked into her dressing room after stepping out of the shower. Jordan hit the woman on the head with a wooden jewelry box and fled the home, authorities said. A few minutes later, the pair were pulled over in Noroton Heights, where Jordan admitted to going into the home, police said.

The woman identified Jordan as the intruder.

Apuzzo's footprints were found in the snow next to a side door, his arrest warrant states.

The pair's latest charges surfaced after Jordan admitted to police that the two have been breaking into unoccupied homes for some time, court records said. The burglaries have been committed in both Fairfield and New Haven counties.

When Darien police checked the New England State Police Information pawn shop database, they found Jordan sold merchandise to the two pawn shops, pocketing $5,600 from June to November 2013, according to the arrest warrants.

When they checked on the pawn shop sales, Darien police found she sold a Hermes watch and a David Yurman ring on Aug. 29. Investigators remembered that such items had been reported stolen Aug. 25 from a home on Sunset Road in Darien.

When shown the pictures of the two items, the homeowners identified them as theirs and even a receipt for the $3,500 stolen watch that included the serial number, which matched the pawn shop's records, the warrant said.

When the woman living in the house was shown pictures of other pieces of jewelry that Jordan sold right around the time of the burglary, she identified 10 pieces out of 13 that belonged to her. One piece of jewelry was a gold necklace with leaves and garnets worth more than $18,000, the warrant said. The homeowners said the stolen property was well in excess of $20,000, the warrant said.

About two weeks ago, the two were charged with breaking into a Norwalk home on Newtown Avenue on Jan. 29, one day before the Darien home invasion.

Police said they obtained a search warrant for where Apuzzo and Jordan lived at 91 Costanzo Court in Hamden and found some possessions stolen from the Newtown Avenue home.

The two were charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit third-degree burglary.